Popular smoking articles, such as cigarettes, have a substantially cylindrical rod shaped structure and include a charge, roll or column of smokable material such as shredded tobacco (e.g., in cut filler form) surrounded by a paper wrapper thereby forming a so-called “smokable rod” or “tobacco rod.” Normally, a cigarette has a cylindrical filter element aligned in an end-to-end relationship with the tobacco rod. Typically, a filter element comprises plasticized cellulose acetate tow circumscribed by a paper material known as “plug wrap.” Certain cigarettes incorporate a filter element having multiple segments, and one of those segments can comprise activated charcoal particles. Typically, the filter element is attached to one end of the tobacco rod using a circumscribing wrapping material known as “tipping paper.” It also has become desirable to perforate the tipping material and plug wrap, in order to provide dilution of drawn mainstream smoke with ambient air. Descriptions of cigarettes and the various components thereof are set forth in Tobacco Production, Chemistry and Technology, Davis et al. (Eds.) 1999. A cigarette is employed by a smoker by lighting one end thereof and burning the tobacco rod. The smoker then receives mainstream smoke into his/her mouth by drawing on the opposite end (e.g., the filter end) of the cigarette.
It has been suggested to incorporate certain additives into cigarettes in order to improve certain properties of those cigarettes. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,525,582 to Waterbury; U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,580 to Mergens et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,655 to Waddell et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,370 to Russo; and PCT WO 95/28098 and CN 1068486A. It has been suggested that such additives, such as certain vitamins, can be incorporated into smoking articles in a variety of ways, such as by incorporating the additive into a tobacco substitute. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,844,294 to Webster; U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,793 to Webster; U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,588 to Rudolph et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,995 to Kersey. It also has been suggested that certain additives can be incorporated into cigarette filters or mouthend pieces. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,832,351 to Hale; U.S. Pat. No. 3,339,558 to Waterbury; U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,478 to Waterbury; U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,032 to Dorr et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,753,250 to Bitter et al.; and EPO 0003064.
There remains a need in the art for methods of improving the properties of smoking articles, such as cigarettes, by incorporating additives capable of altering the properties of the smoking article in a beneficial manner. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a manufacturer of tobacco products with an efficient and effective manner or method to produce a processed tobacco material that incorporates certain additives.